Vikas Singh Baghel, Global Lead Social Talent Sourcing and Branding at HCL Technologies Ltd shares his views on the ideology of designated leaders and their leadership skills. “In the pursuit of looking for state-of-the-art topic to put forth my views in the canvas of my blog, I decided to write about something that has been considerably bothering me- the ideology of designated leaders around and their leadership skills.” Here’s what he says:

The topic “Leadership” intrigues me, when I observe countless experts earning their share of whole wheat brown bread and peanut butter (and not just bread and butter) by enlightening the world with their wisdom. When I reckon “leadership” with the backdrop of my limited ability and experience, the first thing which comes to my mind is “Fearlessness”. Unless one owes that spirit, it becomes no-win to be a leader. Historically you can pick-up any leader from Business, Politics, Sports or War Heroes, who emerged as leader; each one of them had this innate quality. Unless you have risk appetite that comes with fearlessness you can’t dare to challenge the conventional trends and henceforth, merely keep eluding change which is the only way to taste success in today’s unprecedented scenarios.

How many times did we hear this “I don’t have a solution to this? I am looking for answers from you”. It is one of the most common clichéd lines from leaders resonating their democratic way of leadership and perhaps projecting them as an ‘accommodative leader’. But does this solve the purpose?

I believe that a Leader should have surfeit of innovative ideas, not suggesting he has to know all, but having said that, even one strong IDEA can make you a leader, if it has the power to envisage large scale sustainable change. More often than not I have seen people torment with their individual role, reputation and well-being and not their team and that is de-facto reflection of fear.

Contemplating myself, I shall be greatly exultant and exalted to get someone smarter than me working in my team instead drawing apprehensions or getting afflicted about my status quo.

The reason pertaining to above statement would explicitly be my perception on “Leadership”. Leadership, for me, has precisely been about imparting knowledge, taking charge and onus of all which didn’t work for team, whilst giving credit to the team for everything which falls in place and brings applaud to us.

Who bothers for the credit as long as my Team is shining and perceived as winner’s team!!

In the time of crises or contingency, if the first thing to cross your mind is “what will happen to me (and not my team)?” you are just a supervisor and not a leader.

Pertinent to that, if I am not becoming irrelevant after sometime in my ad dock role perhaps I have been just doing factory set-up supervisor role and not cloning my team to perform what I could do with my respective role. As a Team Mentor, I keep emphasis on “WHAT” and let “HOW” part be driven by individuals in my team because that’s where innovation and creativity will grow in my team.

More of than not pyramid culture mushrooms leader on virtue of experience and age rather than pure talent and potential. It is appalling to find a bunch of elite people carrying hefty weight in their mail signature (courtesy above mentioned process) without imperative and adequate skills. Midst of this cynicism I must admit that I have come across certain brilliant minds that just mesmerize me with their wealth of experience, leadership quality believing in “WE” approach with “I” efforts and inspire many more to become like them in every touch points.

About Vikas Singh Baghel:

Vikas Singh Baghel, Global Lead Social Talent Sourcing and Enterprise Social Network at HCL Technologies Ltd. He has 9 years varied experience in Talent Acquisition operations, governance and technology. Vikas has distinction of designing the award winning Enterprise Social Network for HCL, anchored Global Implementation of ATS which is recognized by People Matters in Talent Acquisition Leadership League Awards. Vikas is Certified Recruitment Analyst, Certified Digital Recruiter, STAR certified Lead Leader and IMA certified Mentor.